Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/163

148 from Boccaccio and Castiglione. A company of ladies and gentlemen of good family have been spending the autumn at the Pyreneean baths. Being surprised by grievous floods and a heavy deluge of rain, the visitors have left the baths and set out for their homes. But the dangers of travel from the swollen rivers, from wild beasts, and yet more savage robbers, has overtaken many by the way; so that of all that society only ten find refuge safe and sound in the friendly abbey of St. Savin. Here they must wait until the floods subside; and, to wile away the tedium of their imprisonment, they tell true adventures to each other every afternoon from the midday dinner till the hour of vespers.

The little company is composed of five noble gentlemen and five ladies. The first to arrive is an elderly and pious widow, Dame Oisille, who has lost in the confusion her gentleman-in-waiting named Simontault, once the très affectueux serviteur of Madame Parlamente, a spirited but pious woman of the world, "never lazy nor melancholy," who has also taken refuge at St. Savin with her churlish husband, Hircan. She, in her turn, is surprised to meet in this place of refuge her platonic lover Dagoucin: a most devoted admirer" who would rather die than do ought to hurt the conscience of his lady." Dagoucin has escaped from the floods with his friend Saffredant, a brilliant young scapegrace, wild and reckless, but not unloveable, who is under the charm of Longarine, a tender-hearted, timid creature, whose husband has been slain by robbers in escaping from the flood. The shadow of her sudden loss still overhangs her delicate nature. These fugitives are joined by two young unmarried ladies, Émarsuitte, a quiet, somewhat jealous-tempered